We're looking for a senior, hands-on QA Lead Consultant to own end-to-end quality strategy for a large, multi-stream Salesforce and AWS Connect program. You'll serve as the quality gatekeeper across functional, SIT, E2E, UAT, regression, performance, load and go-live activities - while equally comfortable stepping in as a hands-on contributor - leading by example, not just by direction. You'll lead quality across multi-cloud Salesforce solutions (Sales, Service, Revenue, Experience Cloud, Field Service, Digital Experience, Service Cloud Voice, etc.) and AWS Connect contact center implementations, including IVR telephony, enterprise integrations, and GenAI/Agentic AI features. Key Responsibilities QA Strategy & Leadership - Independently define and stand up the QA program from scratch - QA charter, tool setup, test strategy, quality gates, and release readiness criteria - without waiting for direction - Serve as the single QA point of contact for clients, program managers, and technical leads simultaneously, acting as a trusted quality advisor with a seat at the program table - Lead and mentor QA teams of 5+ members while seamlessly stepping in as a hands-on contributor when the project demands it - leading by example, not just by direction - Own QA program management end-to-end - resource planning, risk management, defect governance, cross-functional coordination, and stakeholder reporting - Proactively maintain live QA dashboards and independently prepare QA status reports for weekly program reviews, steering committees, and go/no-go decisions - without being asked - Define and track quality KPIs - defect escape rate, test coverage, automation ROI, and cycle time - raising risks and blockers before they become program issues - Coordinate environment and release strategy - managing sandbox and staging environments, collaborating with DevOps/release teams on deployment schedules, change sets, and testing windows - Lead go-live readiness assessments - compiling test completion metrics, open defect risk summaries, and formal sign-off documentation - Own hypercare QA support post-launch - triaging production issues, coordinating hotfix validation, and maintaining a known issues log with clear severity assessments communicated to stakeholders - Apply sampling strategies, accuracy benchmarking, and prompt regression testing to validate LLM-powered and Agentic AI features; leverage GenAI tools to accelerate test case generation, documentation, and overall QA productivity Test Design & Execution - Independently author detailed, scenario-based test cases and traceability matrices mapped to SOW scope - covering functional, integration, regression, performance, and UAT cycles across all workstreams - Write thorough negative, boundary, and edge case scenarios across complex multi-cloud and contact center workflows - not just happy path coverage - Lead exploratory testing for complex and ambiguous workflows, applying risk-based judgment to prioritize coverage where business impact is highest - Validate platform configurations, business rules, routing logic, automation workflows, integration touchpoints, and data flows across the full solution stack - Own end-to-end testing of integration layers - API request/response validation, middleware transformations, screen pop behavior, and bidirectional data sync across connected systems - Lead SIT, E2E, UAT, regression, performance, load, and go-live testing activities across all release cycles - Facilitate UAT readiness sessions with business stakeholders - walking through test scenarios, supporting non-technical users, and driving structured sign-off - Own full defect lifecycle - creation, triage, prioritization, SLA tracking, root cause tagging, and trend analysis - enforcing defect governance and escalation protocols throughout - Produce meaningful defect health reports and quality metrics summaries for program leadership and client stakeholders at every stage of the delivery Required Qualifications - 7+ years in QA engineering with at least 4 years of hands-on experience on Salesforce and/or AWS Connect implementations - Led QA on at least two enterprise Salesforce multi-cloud programs managing 5+ direct QA team members - Hands-on lead experience delivering at least one contact center and IVR telephony project using Service Cloud Voice, Amazon Connect, or comparable platforms such as Twilio, Avaya, Cisco, or Genesys - Demonstrated ability to operate as a solo QA owner in early project phases - building the program independently before scaling the team - Exposure to Contact Center and ITSM domains strongly preferred Tools & Technical Skills - Test Management & Planning: Proficient with enterprise test management tools including Jira/Xray, Azure DevOps, Zephyr Scale, TestRail, or qTest - Defect Tracking & Governance: Strong command of Jira for end-to-end defect lifecycle management - CI/CD & DevOps-Aware Testing: Familiarity with Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or Azure DevOps for pipeline configuration, automated test triggers, and deployment tracking. Proficient with Git-based version control - GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket - for managing test scripts, automation frameworks, and configuration files - Test Automation & Performance Testing: Experience with UI automation tools for functional and regression test coverage. Proficient in API testing using Postman, REST Assured, or SoapUI. Hands-on experience with performance and load testing tools - GenAI & Productivity Tools: Actively leverages GenAI productivity tools - Claude, Copilot, or ChatGPT - for test case generation, test data creation, and QA documentation acceleration - Reporting & Collaboration: Confluence for QA documentation, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive and SharePoint for distributed team coordination and stakeholder communication Soft Skills & QA Leadership - Trusted Advisor Presence - Earns client confidence through expertise, transparency, and consistent delivery; comfortable challenging scope and requirements constructively when testability or clarity is lacking - Radical Ownership - Takes full accountability for quality outcomes across the program; doesn't wait to be told what to test next and never passes the problem to someone else - Hands-On Leadership - Leads by doing; equally comfortable mentoring junior team members and personally drafting and executing test cases on the same day - Proactive Risk Management - Anticipates quality risks, raises blockers early, and brings solutions - not just problems - to every stakeholder conversation - Composed Under Pressure - Navigates defect escalations, client concerns, and delivery conflicts with professionalism, sound judgment, and a calm, steady presence - Intellectually Curious - Invests time to deeply understand the business process being tested, not just the technical specification; asks the right questions before writing the first test case - Comfortable with Ambiguity - Makes risk-based quality decisions and writes meaningful test cases even when requirements are incomplete or evolving - Finisher Mentality - Drives every test cycle through to formal sign-off and release; not someone who starts strong and disengages before the finish line - Clear Communicator - Articulates QA status, risks, and recommendations clearly and confidently to both technical teams and non-technical business stakeholders Collaborative Coach - Develops junior QA team members, supports client UAT efforts, and fosters a quality-first culture across the entire program team